Responsive advertisement footprint and framework

ABSTRACT

A responsive advertising system is described herein that provides a single responsive advertisement footprint that can work cross any screen size or ad placement and converge online and mobile advertising. Bringing together everything in a way to contain or include various formats or components in a common toolkit is presented for the first time herein. The system allows a given advertisement unit to be flexible enough to change size and shape to work across different publishing properties (e.g., website, mobile application, email, and so forth) in an efficient, optimizable, trackable, and universal way. Thus, the responsive advertising system allows advertisers to expand their reach to more device types while reducing administrative burden in managing multiple advertisements for cross-screen or channel delivery.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/668,336 (Attorney Docket No. SNYDER004) entitled,“RESPONSIVE ADVERTISEMENT FOOTPRINT AND FRAMEWORK,” and filed on 2012Nov. 5, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationNo. 61/555,111 (Attorney Docket No. SNYDER002) entitled, “RESPONSIVEADVERTISEMENT FOOTPRINT AND FRAMEWORK,” and filed on Nov. 3, 2011, eachof which is hereby incorporated by reference.

The present application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/063,685 (Attorney Docket No. SNYDER005) entitled, “STORY-BASED,MULTI-SCREEN ADVERTISING FRAMEWORK,” and filed on 2013 Oct. 25, whichclaims the benefit of U.S. Patent Application No. 61/718,187 (AttorneyDocket No. SNYDER003) entitled “RESPONSIVE MULTISCREEN ADVERTISINGFRAMEWORK,” and filed on Oct. 25, 2012, each of which is herebyincorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

The market for mobile, online, and tablets is converging very rapidlywith web tool evolution around Cascading Style Sheets version 3 (CSS3),Hypertext Markup Language version 5 (HTML5), and JavaScript technologiesgiving lots of opportunity for integrated designs. In May 2010 EthanMarcotte (author of a book about adaptive, flexible grid-based webdesign) coined the phrase “Responsive Web Design” as a method of havingthe same web page adapt to different sizes based on browser widths usedby clients to view the web page. Media queries are a CSS feature thatallows detection of device viewport at a web server to adapt content.Based on leveraging media queries in addition to CSS3, HTML5 andfluid-grids, this new web design technique has presented itself as apotential to become the standard in web design. The methodology makes iteasier to keep the exact same web site content and have it display formultiple different views.

Typical views may include a desktop computer that has a large,relatively square screen (i.e., large width and height to displaycontent), a netbook/laptop type computer with a smaller but alsorelatively square screen, a tablet computer with a tall and wide screen,and a smartphone with a tall and relatively thin screen. Each of thesetypes of views implies different formatting for the content displayed onthem. For example, a desktop may have sufficient screen real estate todisplay multiple columns of information, and thus a site with articlesmay choose to display three or more columns, potentially withadvertisements above, below, and to the sides of the content. Asmartphone, on the other hand, may have room for only one column ofinformation, and any advertisements may have to fit in column with theother content, or as a thin banner above or below the content. Thesedifferences in views and devices imply substantial work on the part ofcontent publishers and advertisers.

In parallel to this trend, digital advertisement formats have alsoevolved as well as the serving and other technologies that surroundthem. However, solutions have been consistent for any given view.Advertisement unit footprints have been fixed as a position and size inthe website, with the evolution of new innovative techniques forrich-media delivering, tracking, verifying, and dynamically changing thecontent only for each of these footprints has been the main driver thathas emerged with HTML5 web tools in general. The massive innovationaround advertisement technology for online websites, versus theinnovation for mobile advertisement technology has been totallyseparated in the industry. Different companies focusing on the differentchannel of online or mobile has been the status-quo. Mobile advertisinghas been thought of as a way to monetize mobile websites or applicationswith new units and development platforms. Many of the mobile technologycompanies have shown mobile to be something different that involved aseparate technology and strategy. Examples of this can be found with themany rich media mobile advertisement units (footprints) that haveevolved in HTML5 with IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) standard sizes(e.g., 728×90, 300×250, etc.).

For advertisers that want to reach users wherever they are, and whateverdevices they use, this can involve substantial administrativechallenges. Advertisers may have to manage one set of marketing contentfor traditional desktop devices and another set of marketing content fornewer mobile devices. Changes to an advertising campaign may involveupdating multiple, separate delivery systems and errors may lead to aninconsistent marketing message. For example, a mobile campaign may fallout of date while an advertiser focuses on his or her non-mobilecampaign. In addition, failure to consider particular device types andto provide advertisements for those device types may lead to missedopportunities to reach users. For example, an advertiser that is notwell versed in current trends may fail to reach mobile users at all, ormay underestimate the significance of a newly emerging type of mobileplatform.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram that illustrates components of the responsiveadvertising system, in one embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram that illustrates processing of the responsiveadvertising system to author and publish an advertising framework, inone embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram that illustrates processing of the responsiveadvertising system to deliver a web page with an embedded advertisingframework of the type described herein that can dynamically select andinsert adaptable advertising units when the web page is rendered on aclient device, in one embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing three footprint examples.

FIG. 5 is a display diagram that illustrates a dynamically resizingadvertising framework in several size and placement scenarios, in oneembodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram that illustrates a website that is not usingresponsive advertisements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A responsive advertising system is described herein that provides asingle responsive advertisement footprint that can work cross any screensize or ad placement and converge online and mobile advertising.Bringing together advertising assets in a way to contain or includevarious formats or components in a common publishing toolkit (which canbe used by publishers, agencies, brands, and others) is presented forthe first time herein. The system allows a given advertisement unit tobe flexible enough to change size and shape to work across differentpublishing properties (e.g., website, mobile application, email, and soforth) in an efficient, optimizable, trackable, and universal way. Somegoals of the system are to provide: 1) adaptive sizing of anadvertisement footprint depending on the view characteristics of aviewing client, 2) an integrated framework for managing marketingcontent across view types, and 3) cross-platform tracking techniques forusers or behavior profiles for advertisement network targeting. Theintegrated framework includes graphical assets such as images, videos,and text fonts but may also include concepts like providing a carriageor caddy for ad-tags, advertising technologies (creative, applications,or even a responsive web page, app, or widget), analytics tags, andverification and inventory management platforms that can dynamicallymanage either mobile or online environments and can be reported back tothe advertiser, publisher, or administrator of an advertisementmanagement component of the system. Thus, the responsive advertisingsystem allows advertisers to expand their reach to more device typeswhile reducing administrative burden in managing multiple advertisementsfor cross-screen or channel delivery. These concepts are described infurther detail herein.

Example System Components

FIG. 1 is a block diagram that illustrates components of the responsiveadvertising system, in one embodiment. The system 100 includes a designdashboard component 110, a page layout component 120, a size and shapedetection component 130, a markup reading component 140, a footprintselection component 150, and a tracking component 160. Each of thesecomponents is described in further detail herein.

The design dashboard component 110 provides a control panel throughwhich a user of the system (which may be a publisher, agency, brand, orother entity) can design an advertising footprint containing multiplepositions within a web page for an advertisement and advertising unitshaving adaptable sizes to fit to an available region of a responsive website. The footprint is a package of multiple advertisement items andinformation (assets), some, all, or none of which may be rendered for aparticular instance of displaying a web page, depending on the contextsurrounding the request to display the page and the information in thefootprint which specifies when various possible advertisement formatsare turned on and used or off and not used, and what dimensions intowhich they will each be sized. The advertisement items may each be usedfor a different possible format of the advertisement, such as banner,skyscraper, rectangle, or other advertisement formats, as well asdifferent layouts of the advertisement (e.g., large picture over text,no picture just text, wrapped and narrower text, and so forth). Inaddition, each advertisement item may have the ability to be fit to avariety of sizes. For example, the layout of an advertisement mayspecify how the advertisement will look if a width of 100, 150, or 200is available. Elements of the advertisement may be linearly sizeable toany size with a possible minimum (e.g., if an image will not fit below acertain width then this advertisement might be turned off, moved, orgiven another format that does not contain the image or with a differentimage to fit smaller widths) and/or maximum dimension.

The design dashboard 110 handles the authoring phase of creating anadvertisement footprint suitable for use by the other components of thesystem below to provide dynamic sizing and selection of particularadvertisements when they are rendered to a user. The informationcontained in the advertising footprint may specify a script or similarinformation that uses client screen size, browser width, device type,user identity, or other characteristics to determine under whichcircumstances to display which advertising items. This information maybe either automatically determined by the system 100 or received from anadministrator through a control panel user interface provided by thedesign dashboard component 110. Once the authoring phase is complete,the component 110 stores the completed framework footprint in a datastore for access by a web server when a client requests one or more webpages that refer to the framework.

The framework footprint generated by the design dashboard component 110contains multiple advertisement layouts that can be adjusted to fit anysize and format (e.g., desktop and mobile) for use in particularsituations relevant to the user. The framework footprint is thenreferenced (e.g., by a tag, link, or other technique that will cause theframework to load and its code to be executed when the web page isloaded) in a web page where the framework is to be used for displayingadvertisements. The framework may be referenced directly and installedon the page (and act as a first party ad server), may be retrieveddynamically from an ad server, or may be a third party ad server itselfreferenced in a tag within the page. The terms “framework” and“reference” to the framework are intended herein to allow flexibility inthe method, called the “reference”, in which the bundle of possibleadvertising units, called the “framework”, is associated with the page.Thus, the framework footprint is associated with a web page withmultiple potential footprint areas that are locations on the web pagewhere advertisements can appear at various sizes appropriate to theclient space. Once a location on the page is selected to receive anadvertisement, and an advertisement appropriate for that location isselected, the system dynamically sizes the selected layout to fit theavailable space of the location. The footprint framework is a type ofcontainer that may include various types of assets, such as displayadvertising images, video advertising, rich media advertising,advertising ad-tags, and responsive web design widgets as determined bythe user of the system.

The page layout component 120 operates to lay out and recognize theelements on a page for display to a page visitor using a client device.A page could be a web page, native application page, or other userinterface like those typically defined with markup language. The pagelayout component 120 may have either server or client sub-components orboth. For example, a PHP server may host a web page and may determinethe final markup content of the web page to server to a client device.PHP allows web authors to include various dynamic script behavior sothat markup varies per user, per device type, or for other reasons. Theclient, upon making a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) or similarrequest may specify client device and user information in a user-agentor other property that the server can use to dynamically select whatcontent to provide to the client. Once on the client, the markup (e.g.,hypertext markup language (HTML) or other) provided by the server mayinclude JavaScript or other dynamic code that is executed at the clientto further modify the behavior of the web page. In modern websites,technologies such as asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) may be usedto coordinate between client and server to dynamically modify thecontent of a web page without refreshing and re-retrieving the entireweb page from the server.

Responsive web design is a method of authoring and serving web contentthat allows the web content to adapt to a user's client device displayarea. The design of the web content is such that it will reorder,resize, and layout itself dynamically based on the available screenregion into which it is being displayed. Fluid layout is used todescribe a type of responsive web design in which each web page is builtusing a system or relative units rather than pixels. A fluid grid usingpercentages can be used to indicate how much space each component of aweb page is intended to consume. For example, one column of text mightconsume the left 50% and another column of text might consume the right50%. At actual display time, what actual size 50% is will vary. It couldbe 50 pixels for a smartphone and 500 pixels for a desktop computer, butregardless the site is designed to determine and adapt to whatever thereality is at the time of display.

This type of web design created huge problem for advertising, whichlived in a world up until 2011 of standardized, absolute advertisementfootprint sizes. The responsive advertising system 100 described hereinsolves this problem by making advertisements also fluid or responsive,like the rest of the web content on the page. This allows the pagedesigner, for example, to specify that the top 10% or right 25% of thepage is available for an advertisement, and for the system 100 to fit anadvertisement from the framework footprint described herein intowhatever available space that actually is at display time. One method ofimplementing this concept uses media queries, which were introduced inthe CSS3 specification, which allow a web designer to create conditionalstylesheets based on available width, height, orientation, and otherfactors. There are many types of media queries, but ones such asmin-width, max-width, min-device-width, max-device-width, orientation,and webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio are examples of very useful mediaqueries for determining breakpoints at which the layout of a particularadvertisement using the responsive advertising system will change (e.g.,to another layout, size, content, or modify other parameters).

The size and shape detection component 130 detects characteristics ofthe client device that affect the environment, including size and shape,in which the laid out web page will be rendered. For example, thecomponent 130 may detect the device type (e.g., smartphone, tablet,laptop, desktop, particular model such as iPhone 4, and so forth),screen size (e.g., in pixels or other units), browser window width(e.g., if the browser is not consuming the full screen), container sizeof where an advertisement will be placed into (based on information fedback from the page layout component 120), and other characteristics thataffect the area in which web page content will be displayed. Like thepage layout component 120, the size and shape detection component 130may have some operation at the server and/or the client. The server candetect screen size through the user-agent property, by previous historyof the user, or by other mechanisms. The client can use JavaScript and adocument object model (DOM) or other techniques to dynamically query theavailable browser width, client device type, and other information. Thesize and shape detection component 130 may also detect identifyinginformation of the user that is requesting the web page, which can beused for analytics, content customization, and targeted advertising.This information can be provided to a server component or used at theclient to dynamically select advertising content suitable for the user,to track user behavior, or for other purposes.

Within the web page of a fluidly designed responsive web site, the sizeand shape detection component 130 may determine the sizes and shapes ofvarious slots within the page into which content will be sized. This mayinclude one or more advertising slots (placements) in whichadvertisements can be placed, that are sized dynamically to theavailable space of a particular client device.

The markup reading component 140 reads the markup delivered by the pagelayout component 120 and identifies both main content of the web pageand one or more variable-sized locations of the web page that cancontain advertising content. The markup reading component 140 may be therendering engine of a web browser, a crawler of a search engine, orother component that reads and understands the meaning of one or moremarkup languages. The system 100 does not specify a fixed position orsize for advertisements, but rather provides a footprint framework thatis a bundle or package of possible advertisement layouts and positions.The system 100 dynamically uses this footprint framework when the webpage is rendered on a particular client device to determine theadvertisement placement and layout most appropriate for that particularclient device.

The footprint selection component 150 reads a footprint frameworkcreated by the design dashboard and associated with a particular webpage being prepared for display on a client device, selects from amongthe multiple layouts and positions of advertisements and assetscontained within the framework footprint to select one or more layoutsand positions of advertisements to display on the particular web pagebeing prepared for display, and dynamically adapts the size and shape ofthe selected advertisements to fit the detected client characteristics.The positions of advertisements on the web page are not fixed as in pastweb advertising technologies. Rather, they can vary based oncharacteristics of the client device detected by the size and shapedetection component 130. In addition, even at any given position thesize of advertisement used may vary by client device. For example,although a web page may include a banner advertisement across the top ofthe page for both desktop and smartphone client devices, the width ofadvertisement selected for the smartphone will generally be smaller andmay even include different content of the advertisement, such as ashorter tag line or other text that is better optimized to mobiledisplay.

Thus, neither size nor position of advertisements provided by the system100 are static, a limitation of systems of the past. In addition, thedynamically sized and positioned advertisements of the system 100described herein allow for a natural adaptation of advertising strategyto mobile and desktop environments. No longer do advertisers need tothink completely separately about these two important environments andno longer does technology for the two need to evolve separately. Thesystem 100 can turn on and off particular advertising slots, resizeparticular advertising slots, and retrieve different content foradvertising slots depending on the detected characteristics of theclient device and/or user of the device.

The tracking component 160 provides reporting and tracking of howadvertisements are actually used by one or more client devices.Reporting provides cross-screen information to advertisers such as thetypes of devices being used to consume their content, which sizes ofadvertisements were seen by how many users, which advertisements weremost effective (e.g., based on click through or other metrics), and soforth. Tracking provides information on particular user behavior, suchas how many repeat visitors requested a web page, whether a particularknown user purchased an item advertised on the web page, whether theuser interacted with the advertisement (e.g., by clicking, hoveringover, or pausing to read the advertisement), and so on. The advertisingframework can offer complete cross-screen analytics capability (betweendevices) with one creative entity.

The tracking component 160 can provide unified reports across desktopand mobile environments, so that advertisers no longer have to managethese two important environments separately. It is possible to know withthe system 100, for example, that a particular user started viewing aweb page and saw an advertisement on a desktop computing device, andthen continued viewing the same page later on a mobile computing device,which may have ultimately resulted in a purchase. The component 160delivers information about context, browser, and device type being usedto view a web page and associated advertisements. The component 160provides analytics data based on specific users accessing a web page,and can provide specific metrics common to the industry such asclick-through rate, effective cost per thousand impressions, and costper click.

The computing device on which the system is implemented may include acentral processing unit, memory, input devices (e.g., keyboard andpointing devices), output devices (e.g., display devices), and storagedevices (e.g., disk drives or other non-volatile storage media). Thememory and storage devices are computer-readable storage media that maybe encoded with computer-executable instructions (e.g., software) thatimplement or enable the system. In addition, the data structures andmessage structures may be stored on computer-readable storage media. Anycomputer-readable media claimed herein include only those media fallingwithin statutorily patentable categories. The system may also includeone or more communication links over which data can be transmitted.Various communication links may be used, such as the Internet, a localarea network, a wide area network, a point-to-point dial-up connection,a cell phone network, and so on.

Embodiments of the system may be implemented in various operatingenvironments that include personal computers, server computers, handheldor laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems,programmable consumer electronics, digital cameras, network PCs,minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environmentsthat include any of the above systems or devices, set top boxes, systemson a chip (SOCs), and so on. The computer systems may be cell phones,personal digital assistants, smart phones, personal computers, tabletcomputers, programmable consumer electronics, digital cameras, and soon.

The system may be described in the general context ofcomputer-executable instructions, such as program modules, executed byone or more computers or other devices. Generally, program modulesinclude routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, and soon that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract datatypes. Typically, the functionality of the program modules may becombined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.

Although the term “web page” is used herein to describe places where theadvertising framework can be utilized, those of ordinary skill in theart will recognize that web technology and content can appear in manydifferent places today. For example, in car technology, web appliances,mobile applications, smart watches, email, and other areas can all usethe techniques described herein to dynamically size and positionadvertising content. Thus, use of the term “web page” is meant to be oneexample application of this technology and does not limit the use of thetechnology in these other areas.

Example Processes

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram that illustrates processing of the responsiveadvertising system to author and publish an advertising framework, inone embodiment. The advertising framework is a responsive advertisementunit that dynamically changes for different clients, in one embodiment.Beginning in block 210, the system receives a request from anadvertising author to create an advertisement unit having dynamic formatand content for multiple client devices. For example, the author mayvisit an authoring tool provided as a web page or other interface by thesystem and may request to create a new advertising unit and/or campaign.The system may provide a profile for each author where the author canlog in to view published advertisements and to create a newadvertisement or the dynamic elements or creatives of an existingadvertisement using the framework described herein. The author maydefine the parameters of what is included in the framework per size andshape as well as the positioning and transition of those elements asdescribed further below.

Continuing in block 220, the system receives a format for a firstversion of the advertisement unit. The author may start by selecting anoverall starting size, maximum size, or initial size for theadvertisement (e.g., 2560×1400 in the case of a full page advertisement)and the system may provide a blank canvass onto which the author candrag or otherwise specify elements to include in the advertisement. Theauthoring environment may include a toolbox of potential elements (e.g.,text boxes, images, videos, audio, applets, and so on) as well asallowing the author to add custom element types to the advertisementunit. In addition, the author can specify the dynamic sizing propertiesof each element, using techniques of responsive web design describedherein, and applying them to the advertising content itself.

Continuing in block 230, the system receives one or more elements andlayout information for the received elements that will comprise thecontent of the first version of the advertisement unit. For example, theauthor may select an element, such as a text box, and the author mayplace the element at a particular location within the version of theadvertisement unit. The author may also resize the element, position theelement, or define its transition, to define its boundaries, as well asspecifying content of the element, such as text to display, formattingof the text, and so forth. The author continues in this manner until heor she has added all of the desired elements to this version of theadvertisement unit. The author may also specify conditional informationassociated with elements that are conditionally displayed or for whichthe formatting is based on values associated with one or more conditionsthat will be evaluated at the time of serving and/or displaying theadvertisement. The conditions may specify which advertising units willbe turned on or off (e.g., visible versus hidden) and how advertisingunits that are turned on will be sized as well as similar informationwithin each advertising unit (which elements will be turned on and off,and how the elements will be sized). As part of these conditions, theposition and transition of elements may be part of this process.

Continuing in block 240, the system stores the first version of theadvertisement unit as defined by the advertisement author. The systemmay include one or more data stores for storing received advertisementframeworks, and from which an advertisement server of the systemaccesses advertisement frameworks upon receiving requests to display webpages containing the advertisement frameworks.

Continuing in decision block 250, if the advertising author requests todefine more versions of the advertisement unit for other potentialclient devices or screen formats, then the system loops to block 220 toreceive those additional versions and associated elements and formattinginformation. An author may specify versions for each of the types ofclient devices expected to display the advertisement, versions fordifferent screen sizes, versions for different browser window sizes, aswell as default versions of the advertisement to be displayed when nomore specific version is available for matching to a particular clientdevice.

Continuing in block 260, the system publishes the advertisementframework including each of the defined advertisement units as apackaged entity designed to dynamically respond to multiple clientdevice screens but be managed as a single entity by the author.Publishing the advertisement makes it available for display on websitesor with other associated content, and engages the serving capability andclient rendering capability of the system to dynamically select andmodify advertisements based on the received versions and characteristicsof any particular client device or spots or containers on a web pagefrom which a request for an advertisement is received. After block 260,these steps conclude.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram that illustrates processing of the responsiveadvertising system to deliver a web page with an embedded advertisingframework of the type described herein that can dynamically select andinsert adaptable advertising units when the web page is rendered on aclient device, in one embodiment. Beginning in block 310, the systemreceives a request to display a web page. The request is generallyproduced when a user opens a web browser on a client device andnavigates to a uniform resource locator (URL). For example, a user on asmartphone may click a link found on Facebook or in an email, which maycause the smartphone to open a browser application and navigate to theURL referenced by the link. Requests may also come from other sources,such as automated tools that open web pages and retrieve their content(e.g., RSS readers, web crawlers, and so forth).

Continuing in block 320, the system retrieves markup language describinga page layout of the requested web page from a web server, wherein thepage layout includes one or more elements of non-advertising content,and a framework footprint containing advertising content associated withthe web page. The web server may be a server that dynamically determinesmarkup, such as a PHP server or a static web server. The server maydynamically insert the advertising framework or other content into theweb page markup before the markup is delivered to the client device. Theclient then receives this markup and begins rendering the markup in aweb browser. This typically occurs by the client device web browserhierarchically processing tags within the markup that describe thevarious content of the web page. The content may include one or more DIVor other tags that specify various divisions of content on the page, oneor more of which may be places where advertisements can go on the webpage. The page may include HTML, XML, CSS, and other formats of markupinformation, and the layout may include responsive web designinformation, such as media queries in CSS, that describe how the pagelayout will fluidly change under various conditions, such as varyingclient display sizes.

Continuing in block 330, the system detects one or more characteristicsof a client device that will display the web page, wherein thecharacteristics include at least a size of an area in which the web pagewill be rendered. The characteristics may include the type of the clientdevice (general, such as smartphone, laptop, or specific, such as themodel number), the size of the client device screen or screens, the sizeof the browser application's window, and so forth. These characteristicsmay also change after the web page is first rendered, such as by theuser resizing the browser application window, and the system may repeatthese steps to adapt the content of the web page, includingadvertisements, to the available screen real estate.

Continuing in block 340, the system loads the retrieved frameworkfootprint and identifies a plurality of possible advertising unitlocations and layouts to render within or above the requested web page.The framework is a package data structure that allows multiple contentitems associated with an advertising campaign to be managed andpublished as a unit. In some embodiments, the framework may load only asmall piece on the client, leaving other possible options of advertisingunits to be downloaded from the server. In other embodiments, theframework may download many advertising units to the client and selectat the client which to turn on or off. Which method is chosen may dependon characteristics of the network connection between the client andserver (e.g., optimizing to save bandwidth where bandwidth is scarce),characteristics of the processing power of the client device (e.g.,conserving processing power on the client where that resource isscarce), or based on other characteristics.

Continuing in block 350, the system dynamically turns on or off andmodifies a size for each possible advertising unit within the retrievedframework footprint to render within the requested web page based on thedetected one or more characteristics of the client device and theavailable space within the web page. For any particular rendering of theadvertising framework on a client device, the system may display one,none, or multiple actual advertisement units, depending on the detectedclient device characteristics. For example, on a client device having alarge rectangular display area, the advertising framework may includemultiple advertising units that are turned on and displayed inrelatively large sizes in different positions within the web page. Thesame web page displayed on a smaller device, such a smartphone, maycause the advertising framework to select to turn on only a singlerelatively small advertising unit that fits better within the othercontent displayed on the smartphone screen. How all elements take adifferent position or x-y coordinate in the overall creative is afeature of the framework described herein In addition, while eachelement may be stored with relative position and sizing information inthe framework footprint, the system may receive an absolute size at thetime of display and set the size of each element of the responsiveadvertisement to fit into this available size. After block 350, thesesteps conclude.

Insertion Methods and Footprint Types

Another concept introduced by the responsive advertising system includesmultiple insertion methods for getting marketing content from a definedpackage to the websites or other content areas where advertisementsbased on the marketing content are to be displayed. Insertion methodsmay differ based on the amount of control an advertiser has over asite's content. JavaScript and other techniques may also be used todynamically determine conditions at a client device and adapt contentfrom a marketing package to the conditions present on a particulardevice. For example, in some cases of high control, it may be possibleto insert responsive advertising content directly into a site using afirst party advertising tag. A footprint inserted as a first party tagmay use JavaScript or other techniques to turn on and off potentialadvertisement slots on the page based on available size. With a firstparty tag these scripts may be directly included with the page. In othercases of less control, a responsive advertisement may be added to anexisting system using a third party advertising tag. In this scenariothe existing web page acts as a container, and HTML DIV tags or othertechniques may be used to turn on or off (e.g., make visible orinvisible) various third party advertisement tags at various locationson the page based on screen size or other conditions.

The responsive advertising system defines a footprint to encompass atleast three different scenarios as shown in FIG. 4. In the case of aresponsive web design site the system can render different fluidconfigurations for different screen resolutions based on what mediaqueries (a feature of CSS3) call the viewport size. The system may alsouse other device detection methods in addition to viewport size todetermine how to display responsive advertising content.

Type#1 410 applies when the overall footprint is the overall viewablearea of the website. In this instance, the framework can provideadvertisements that can be rendered across the entire site in thelocations and sizes determined by the framework as described later inthis document. When a footprint is installed in a site, and when thesite changes based on the responsiveness of the site for differentviewport sizes, the framework can turn on/off different first partytags, advertising creatives, and whatever is packaged in the frameworkas further described herein.

Type #2 420 applies when the footprint is treated as a first partyadvertising tag itself. A first party advertising tag is the terminologyto describe code that is put in a specific area on a website that linksto an advertising server that delivers advertisements into thosefirst-party tags (commonly referred to as a publisher side advertisingserver). A footprint or footprint(s) in this case can be installed(inserted) onto a website in predefined positions where there is adesired location to serve ads. As the website changes form with thechanges to the view port size or the responsiveness of the website,dictated by the framework configuration, different elements orcomponents can be assigned (such as advertising tags, creatives, and soforth).

Type #3 430 applies when the footprint is actually the ad unit itself orin the case of being a third party tag that gets delivered into firstparty tags on the page. The framework can deliver the selectedadvertising tag or creative, that has been determined by the frameworkinto this space.

FIG. 5 is a display diagram that illustrates a dynamically resizingadvertising framework in several size and placement scenarios, in oneembodiment. The framework includes different elements, configurations,and positions in the overall advertisement and transitions from size tosize in a dynamic way. Advertisements can be added to a size in thisframework as well as combinations of assets. The framework package 500stores each of the possible assets that can make up a placement of theadvertisement as well as rules that define when each element is on oroff, how each element is sized to fit the available placement area, andso forth. In this example, the package 500 includes an ad tag 501, avariable sized container 502, a responsive widget 503, text 504, imageassets 505, and video 506. The image assets 505 may include one or moreversions of the same image or one or more versions of different imagesthat can be used in the advertisement under various conditions.

In the first placement 510, a 1440×300 advertisement is to be displayedin the available placement area. The advertisement in this instance willinclude a responsive widget 511 (which is a dynamically sized version ofwidget 503), text 512 (which is a dynamically sized version of text504), image assets 513 and 514 (which are taken from the available imageassets 505), and video 515 (which is a dynamically sized version ofvideo 506). As the web page on which the advertising package is locatedis resized, the size of the placement area may change. In the secondplacement 520, a 768×200 advertisement is to be displayed in theavailable placement area. The advertisement in this instance willinclude video 521, image asset 522, text 523, and responsive 524. Notethat in contrast to placement 510, the video and responsive widget haveswapped sides and been resized. In addition, there is no longer room forthe second image asset 514 to be displayed so no equivalent is shown inplacement 520.

In the third placement 530, a 300×250 advertisement is to be displayedin the available placement area. In this example, the container 502 andits contents are not displayed. Rather, ad tag 531 makes up the entirecontent of placement 530. In the fourth placement 540, a 468×100advertisement is to be displayed in the available placement area. Theadvertisement in this instance will include video 541, text 542, andimage asset 543. In the fifth placement 550, a 600×400 advertisement isto be displayed in the available placement area. The advertisement inthis instance will include both assets from container 502, as well as adtag 554. The advertisement includes video 551, image asset 552, text553, and ad tag 554.

Note that in this diagram, text 504, text 512, text 523, text 542, andtext 553 may all be the same. In other words, these regions of theadvertisement placement may all contain the same text, but the text maybe fit to a different sized and positioned rectangle, wrapped aroundimages, or laid out in some other different manner in each placement.Alternatively or additionally, a user of the system when creating theframework package may specify various text assets that apply indifferent situations. For example, the user may specify a shortdescription that is displayed for smaller sized placements, and a longerdescription that is displayed for larger sized placements. Similarly,other asset types, such as the widgets, video, and images may be thesame in each of the advertisement placements shown, or they may beselected from a set of assets having a range of likely to be used sizes.In addition, the x-y coordinate positioning and size (e.g., width andheight) of each of the displayed regions may vary from placement toplacement in order to most effectively fill the available space andavoid empty regions of whitespace.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram that illustrates a website that is not usingresponsive advertisements. A web browser window 600 includes top webcontent 610, such as a menu bar, a banner advertisement area 620, andmain page content 660. The top web content 610 and main page content 660may include many types of content, and may even be laid out according toresponsive web design techniques. The banner advertisement area 620provides a placement area for an advertisement that is the full width ofthe browser window 600 (minus potential margins for reasonable spacing)and is near the top of the page for prominent engagement of targetconsumers. However, in the illustrated example, a banner advertisementimage 630 is provided in a traditional, non-responsive format thatleaves substantial unused left whitespace 640 and right whitespace 650.This is inefficient, detracts from the clean layout of the rest of thepage, and may fail to be effective at engaging the consumer. Theresponsive advertisements described herein and laid out by the systemdescribed herein, would better utilize the available space by adaptingthe assets, size of assets, placement of assets, and so forth used inthe available banner advertisement area 620.

The system described herein can also work with non-responsive sites,with the solution described herein deployed in each of the differentchannels. Therefore, even though one approach for the responsiveadvertising system might be for a responsive site as it would be veryefficient, other approaches can be applied with the system as well. Asmulti-screen content delivery has been a hot topic for publishers andadvertisers to have a flexible solution to meet the needs of thedifferent screen formats of the marketplace today, alignment with thegrowth of social media and mobile has been highly relevant to be able toextend existing advertising strategies from desktop to tablet andmobile.

Any mention of third party brands herein, such as Salesforce, mayinclude trademarks and associated copyrights by their respective owners.All advertising examples are only examples to show the capabilities ofthe system and should not be assumed or construed to indicate that thereis a business relationship with the advertiser.

The following terms are used throughout this document.

-   -   Third party tags. Advertiser ad tags that hold the ad creative.        The tags respond to different ad unit sizes and shapes by        changing either to swap ad or stretch ad configurations to        effectively fit that space.    -   First party tags. Ad unit tags that are generated by typical ad        servers such as Dart for Publishers (DFP). These tags go into a        site to the positions (ad slots) where ads are served.    -   Ad footprint. This is the shape of the ad in any given scenario        for screen size. Ad footprints can be set-up based on the ad        slot configurations. Footprints can be fixed, proportional        aspect ratio, and so forth.    -   Ad slot. A place on the responsive web site HTML where        publishers insert a 1st party tags (e.g., inside of a        leaderboard wrapper <div> HTML tag).    -   Creative. An ad unit that can be Flash, image file (GIF, JPEG,        PNG), HTML5 code, or other.    -   Flow line. The way a footprint changes shape or the way the ad        changes shape and size in a responsive layout. There are        different ways to describe Flow lines, such as Linear,        Accordion, Custom (there are proprietary responsive ad formats        created by author) as well as methods to describe how an ad will        act based on media queries and responsive web design. The Flow        line will also contain story-line communications for different        delivery scenario's as well as context directed at end-users or        segments. Related products are sometimes delivered under the        FLOW-LINE™ trademark.    -   Media queries. The standard in responsive web design for        breakpoints of the different forms of the user interface of the        web site from desktop, tablet, or mobile.    -   Stretch ad. This ad footprint is fluid, liquid and can change        size with one ad creative HTML asset. Depending on the flow        line, an ad footprint can take any form. Related products are        sometimes delivered under the STRETCH™ trademark.    -   Swap ad. This ad footprint has different creatives that change        depending on the different break points of media queries in        responsive web design. Related products are sometimes delivered        under the SWAP™ trademark.    -   Story line. This is the transitional experience of a user as        they engage an ad from one screen to the next. Attribution        models can be built from this storyline experience. Related        products are sometimes delivered under the STORY LINE™        trademark.

Package Format for Unified Management

One concept introduced by the responsive advertising system is that of apackage for backend storage sufficient to contain particular marketingcreative content independent of the view types, footprints, and deviceson which the content will be delivered and displayed. If an advertiserhas a campaign to advertise a particular new product, then the packagewill reflect the theme of that campaign, and will describe all of themany formats in which that theme can be expressed. For example, if thecampaign includes a logo, a tagline, some descriptive content, and alink for more information, the package may describe how each of theseelements will be laid out when the space available is very tall and thin(e.g., 160×600, as in a desktop column), very wide and short (e.g.,468×60j, as in a tablet banner space), and both thin and short (e.g.,300×50, as in a smartphone banner space). This concept alone alleviatesa major headache of advertisers, which is the disparate management ofmarketing creative content. With the responsive advertising system, allof the management is performed in one place, and differences or ways ofadapting to the differences of viewports and devices can be explicitlyand concisely described. Changes to the marketing creative content overtime (e.g., edits) can be reflected on all possible platforms withmanagement in a single place, eliminating the possibility of an outdatedmarketing message on some platforms or in some circumstances.

Advertisement Unit Types

Another concept introduced by the responsive advertising system is a setof new advertisement types that allow for adapting the previouslydescribed package to a set of view characteristics present on anyparticular client device. The advertisement types described herein allowa single set of marketing creative content to be adapted to display atdifferent locations, sizes, and layouts based on view characteristics inwhich the content is displayed. For example, a single set of content maydisplay in one view as a skyscraper type advertisement in the rightcolumn, in another view as a rectangular banner across the top ofcontent, and in another view as an adhesion banner that “sticks” to thebottom edge of a tablet display. Not only is the positioning of theadvertising content changing in each of these examples, but also thesizing and layout of the advertising content may change. For example, alogo may be prominently displayed at the top of a skyscraperadvertisement, and may move to the left edge of an adhesion banner.Similarly, widths, heights, and other characteristics of the marketingcontent can adapt in these advertisement types to display in the mostsuitable manner for a particular view type.

Stretch is an advertisement concept described herein that refers to aunique HTML responsive ad unit technology of the responsive advertisingsystem. Stretch ads have flow lines to determine the particular shape ofa stretch advertisement from screen to screen. Some example types ofstretch advertisement flow lines described further herein are linear,accordion, toppler, adhesion snap, and backdrop.

A linear responsive ad format can start from Billboard (970×250), SuperLeaderboard (970×90) or Leaderboard (728×90) and go to smallerhorizontal banner sizes like IAB Banner (468×60) in tablet and finallydown to mobile banner sizes (320×50, 300×50, 216×39). This ad unit canbe set to utilize extra horizontal space with interstitial sizes goingsmaller proportionally from the last larger standard size. An accordionresponsive ad format may remains at 300px width and swap to verticallysmaller sizes. Desktop size can start from Medium Rectangle (300×250),Half-page (300×600), or IAB Portrait (300×1050) and go smaller to Button(300×150) or 3:1 (300×100) in tablets and to 300×50 in mobile. The adunit can be set to always remain at 300px width or enable it to shrinkproportionally if used in a fluid grid layout with flexible columns. Atoppler responsive ad format is a vertical ad in desktop and thentopples down to a horizontal ad in tablet or mobile. Desktop (andtablet) size can be a half-page (300×600), IAB portrait (300×1050) or awide skyscraper (160×600) that changes in to horizontal banner (728×90,468×60, 320×50, 300×50) at a customizable screen width breakpoint.Horizontal ad sizes can be set to utilize extra horizontal space withinterstitial sizes going smaller proportionally from the last largerstandard size.

An adhesion snap responsive ad format can be any ad unit size in desktop(and tablet landscape), e.g., half-page (300×600), medium rectangle(300×250), or wide skyscraper (160×600), which then changes into anadhesion banner in tablet (screen width×90) and mobile (screenwidth×50). The adhesion banner sticks to the bottom of the screen andalways stays visible. A backdrop responsive ad format may be used forpremium advertisers. Served as a single ad tag, backdrop provides apremium above-the-fold ad format across all screens. For desktop andmobile landscape screens, the ad format is shown as a “wallpaper skin”.For tablet and mobile portrait screens the ad format changes into anadhesion banner that sticks to the top or bottom of the website.

Client Experiences

Each of the previously described concepts leads to a great clientexperience that may be largely transparent to the end user. A useraccessing a website with a smartphone may simply note that he or she isable to access the website and that there are advertisements within thecontent of the website that are well placed (e.g., in line with thecontent, or unobtrusively above or below the content). The same or adifferent user may access the website on a tablet device, and may or maynot notice that the content is in a suitable format for that device, andthe advertisements, while still present, have moved to more suitablepositions for that device (e.g., larger banners above and below thecontent, or in a separate column). A user resizing a browser window on adesktop may notice that the elements of the web page, includingadvertisements, relocate and resize in a sensible manner. The systemdelivers a client experience on any device and in any viewport size thatprovides the impressions desired by advertisers without the end usernecessarily being aware of the complex processing behind the scenes toprovide the user with a device-appropriate viewing experience.

Adaptive Sizing

As described above, the responsive advertising system provides adaptivesizing of an advertisement footprint depending on browsercharacteristics of a viewing client. For a given website, a publisherwill allocate positions based on fixed sizes for advertisement units.This has been the standard process since website advertisements werefirst created. Industry associations such as the Interactive AdvertisingBureau (IAB) since 2002 and others have created standards around thesedifferent types of units in fixed form for positioning into a fixedwebsite grid. The IAB has published since 2002 four predominant ad unitsizes as part of their Universal Ad Package (UAP) standard. Thediscussion herein focuses on three main example shapes: banner, tower,and rectangle. There are many other shapes and sizes as these formatshave evolved as a standard or remained custom depending on the publisherand their relationship with advertising networks, agencies, or buyers ofthe advertising inventory on the site. The publisher has been known tosell media for those fixed positions on the website.

Examples of common banner, tower, and rectangle formats are as follows.A Banner (Leaderboard) is typically 780×90 IMU (IMU is an IAB termrelated to pixels), a Rectangle (medium or small) is 300×250 IMU or180×250 IMU, and a Tower (skyscraper) is 160×600 IMU. These sizes arenow what the industry has been using and they are sizes that are onlytargeting online (website) display or performance-based advertising.There are many formats as well around rich media and video advertisingunits, but for the sake of simplicity, the discussion herein focuses ondisplay advertising. Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognizethe applicability of the concepts described herein to other advertisingformats and placements.

As mobile emerged as a scenario for viewing web content, the sameprocess then evolved totally disconnected from the online world. Thiswas based on mobile screen sizes and suitable formats for those sizes.An entire cottage industry of mobile advertising networks and mobileplatforms has evolved around these standards that are totally differentand not connected to the online world. Some example advertisement unitfootprints are an X-Large Image Banner of typical size 320×50 or 300×75pixels, a Large Image Banner sized 216×36 to 54 pixels, a Medium ImageBanner size 168×28 to 42 pixels, and a Small Image size 120×20 to 30pixels. As the online advertising industry evolved with expandable andnew types of advertising technologies around these footprints, so hasmobile. However, these two different channels, mobile and online, havebeen very separate channels. The responsive advertising system mergesthese two different platforms.

Cross-Media Display Format

The responsive advertising system provides a footprint framework thataccepts advertising units and links to different sizes and advertisingunits to fit into the available footprint. Technically speaking thisframework is an adaptive grid that links back to a dashboard that can beused to design the different sizes suitable for different screens basedon characteristics such as a browser width or device type. Thefootprints of the three different online standard forms can havedifferent sizes based on the different browser widths. In a responsiveor adaptive web design, example browser widths are as follows:Smartphone—320px, Tablet—768px, Netbook—1024px, and Desktop—1600px.

Depending on each of these different browser widths or device types, thefootprint can change to be able to handle responsiveness to let theadvertising network know the positioning is now different for adifferent advertisement fill type or different ad-tag or ad-technology.The footprint can also automatically change the graphic of theadvertisement to match the new size requirements. Finally, the footprintcan deliver valuable information about the context, browser, and devicetype for that web page.

The responsive advertising system does this in part by eitherautomatically or with a dashboard for an administrator managing any ofthese new footprint sizes for these different unit types. The systemprovides a control panel for advertisement publishers with differentfootprints linked to a control panel where advertisement publishers candetermine what size they want for that footprint to accept advertisementsizes.

Technology Framework

The responsive advertising system provides a technology framework thatincludes an integrated mechanism for ad-tags, applications, ad unitcreative, and advertising technology responsive delivery. There are afew ways to recognize a browser/device width using various techniquesthat are well known in the art. What makes the adaptive footprint hereinuseful is that it is a widget to house all kinds of technologies andservices of the user. It is the physical digital foundation for theiradvertising fulfillment. If users have been previously working withdifferent advertising networks or platforms, they can just add thosead-tags, creatives to the responsive advertising footprint.

In some embodiments, the system uses JavaScript to access thewindow.innerHeight property of a web page displayed in a browser, thefirst party tag, ad slot defined area, or third party tag. Using thisproperty web page logic can know what is the width (in pixels) of thebrowser (mobile or PC) that is viewing the advertisement and display aproper advertising unit. Those of ordinary skill in the art willrecognize other ways to determine advertising units based on browserwidth or any other recognizable property that helps determine thebrowser source and type (e.g., determine if the device is a PC and whatthe PC screen width is, determine if the device is a mobile device andif so which kind, and so forth).

The process of determining device characteristics can be performed onthe server or client side. For example, the server can run the mechanismto determine the browser source and type and display the correctadvertising unit (e.g., via user-agent or other properties provided tothe server by the client). As another example, the client can performthe mechanism to determine the browser source and type (e.g., viabrowser, native application, or other).

In some embodiments, the system provides a backbone server (e.g., PHP)that identifies the user that is displaying the advertisement and thendisplay the fitted advertisement to the user. In some embodiments,identifying the user includes determining whether the user is areturning user to the system and what device the advertisement is beingrendered for now (e.g., a PC, a mobile phone, a tablet, and so on). Ifthe user is a new user to the system, the system may save the user(e.g., any available data, such as Facebook data for better recognitionof the user in the future), understand what device the user is using,and then determining which format to render and display for theadvertisement.

Along with the backbone, the system can provide a code to the site ownerto put on his website. This code communicates with the backbone foridentification and then provides any modification to the browserrendering the advertisement. The browser may initiate a call to thebackbone with any change in display format and the backbone will respondwith an appropriate advertisement.

In some embodiments, the backbone is fully integrated with knownad-server and ad-networks and gets advertisement creative assets (e.g.,graphics, rich-media, and so forth) from there. The administratorreceives full analytics about the users and devices to which theadvertisement was rendered. The analytics data may contain informationsuch as click-through rate (CTR), effective cost per thousandimpressions (eCPM), and cost per click (CPC).

PHP and other server-side languages can easily determine the source froma user agent property provided by the browser. The user agent istypically a string that describes information such as browser type,browser version, frameworks installed, Internet Protocol (IP) address(geo identifying the user and resolving the address to understand whatgroup the user is related to), the browser width (depending on theresolution of the browser the system may infer what type of device isbeing used). With all of these properties and other parameters that canbe retrieved, the server can accurately identify the user.

As described herein, the responsive advertising system provides a numberof advancements over the current state of the art. The system providesautomatic size detection to indicate what advertising unit size shouldgo into an available footprint area of a web page or target client. Thesystem also uses ad-tag intelligent selection and provides an adaptiveadvertisement. In some embodiments, the system stores profiles ortargeting parameters for retargeting, clicks on the ad, as well ascross-media alignment.

Ad Formats

With the growth of smartphones, tablet devices, and digital signage thathave compatible browsers to desktop computers, an array of devices withscreen sizes that span from 2″ all the way up to 50-92″ (e.g., in thecase of browser-based Web TVs) is now a reality. As a user, having tocreate different assets for these different screen sizes and contextscan be quite a heavy and costly process. In order to streamline thisprocess, having ad units that conform or fit to different standards andsizes or just a designated random sized ad spot on the page can be avery strong opportunity to not only make the process simpler, but alsoto offer correlation analytics for each different scenario in one unit.The ad spot on the page can be dynamic, and the framework will fit intoit. Alternatively, the framework may define the ad slot shape. The adoperations process is quite task heavy and costly when it comes tohaving multiple creatives and needs to be configured to different thirdparty ad tags for delivery. In some embodiments, the responsiveadvertisement system provides three different response mechanisms(sometimes referred to as “Triple Response”) as they come together tocreate relevant advertisements across multiple screens based on a flowline in a story-line form (cross-screen).

The three types of responsive elements applied by the responsiveadvertising system are: 1) ads that respond to device assets or contentobjects, 2) ads that respond to situation or context, and 3) ads thatrespond to the user. The responsive advertising system applies thesethree different areas together into a method of configuring an ad todynamically change in real time.

Ads that respond to device assets or content objects relate to makingthe ad unit ubiquitous for any screen or media object. For example,based on input specifying information from the devices themselves, thesystem may provide a shape (size) of the ad footprint that is possible.The ad itself changes shape to respond to screen size. There are twoways to do this provided by the responsive advertisement system. One wayis to use swap ads (which is a package of specific advertising creativesthat each are delivered to the relevant size of the screen or object)and the other is to use stretch ads (that is an actual one creative thatthat changes size and shape when viewed from different screens orobjects).

One way to look at this is with the different IAB (InteractiveAdvertising Bureau) standards for different screen sizes (e.g., desktop;728×90px, tablet; 468×60, mobile; 300×50). If the ad changes shape toconform with these different standards for different views automaticallythis would be an example of this approach. The different areas thatdetermine how an ad can respond are as follows: screen size or pixelwidth that determine break points, the actual reference to the deviceitself (this is a subset of the pixel width), and the actual technologyor web application (such as the ad fitting into a video player, into anapplication, and so on).

The second type of responsive element applied by the responsiveadvertising system includes ads that respond to situation or context.This relates to the way the ad unit behaves based on the situation orcontext. For example, the system may receive as input information aboutthe outside surroundings or the places, time circumstances for the userto engage in the site, and provide as output the actual design of the aditself. This may mean that depending on the contextual circumstances,the ad could change color, design, or overall contents. Eachcircumstance is separated and each design for each ad for screen sizewould be independent of each other. The way the ad works mechanicallyfrom screen to screen may also vary (e.g., touch vs. click).

The third type of responsive element applied by the responsiveadvertising system includes ads that respond to the user. This relatesto the way the ad interacts with the user with conversational dialog andcopywriting of the ad. For example, the system may receive as input anidentification of who is the user or segment and provide as output textor language in the ad based on what the user has done, experienced thead campaign before, the point in the purchase process and the socialcommunity around him/her. The actual text content changes from screen toscreen to best accompany the best response for the user. If the usersees the ad (brand marketing) on one screen, the ad can then move to adirect responsive ad (intent based text copy) on another screen ormobile screen.

Stretch Ads

The following paragraphs further described stretch ads. Stretch adsrefer to the ability for ads to morph elastically and change based onscreen, context, and user. Based on a dashboard or configurationmanager, the ad is created and hosted as a flexible ad unit. In someembodiments, there is only one ad built in HTML5 with a foot print andits contents can dynamically change with the elements of the contentbeing streamed and served (separately from an ad server that deliversthe ad tag) from a host in the cloud. Any of the different elements ofthe ad, such as the colors, the images, the text, the animation, theintegrated application-programming interfaces (API's) can all bedelivered dynamically into any form deemed relevant by the controllingdashboard automatically or via the marketer operating the control panelthemselves.

The responsive advertising system applies a concept called flow lines.Previously, there have been a lot of technologies and solutionssurrounding specific channels such as mobile, online, or tablet alone.However, the technology to making advertising more relevant as asummation is the concept of a single advertisement that can act as astory line for the systematic transition of a user from one screen tothe next. Today, with the concept of screen shifting, a user will accessone screen (e.g., a desktop computer) during a certain time of the day,and then access other screens such as mobile when on the go. Having atechnique to allow for one ad delivered for a specific campaign tochange dynamically based on the triple response described above can bevery powerful for better engagement and actions with users.

Although the stretch ads configuration described above provides one wayto solve the one-ad-fits-all dynamic configuration based on the flowline concept, the system may not be limited to this approach only. Forexample, the system also provides a concept of swap advertisements aswell. Even the issue of a flow line acting like a form of playlist ofadvertisement configurations on page that can become a complete flow ofmultiple ads per page.

Flow Lines

The flow line concept provides a number of improvements over previoustechnology. Flow lines provide a process that works with any differenttype of creative for multi-screen advertising (e.g., stretch, swap, or acombination). Flow lines provide an ability to create a first party orthird party ad tag that works everywhere on all screens, significantlytaking away the complexity of the Ad Ops multi-screen process. Flowlines provide real-time dynamic configuration of the ad creative withouthaving to change the ad tag. This gives the marketer the ability to bestenhance or make the ad creative best suited for the campaign. Flow linesprovide a simple way to create a story line for the end-user journal ofcontent or advertising experience. Flow lines create a method forenabling a complete package or sponsorship of a particular inventoryspot that exists across all screens. Flow lines provide a flexible wayto configure legacy ad creatives (such as Flash for desktop and HTML formobile) as one campaign. This can be achieved with the swapconfiguration, for example. Flow lines have the ability of a completemulti-screen analytics and reporting process that brings everythingtogether around a specific campaign. Flow lines are complementary to anyexisting ad server or Ad Operations (Ad Ops) process today. Flow linesassure the highest quality of each different visualization of ad fromscreen to screen. Flow lines provide ads that can work in any screenposition (e.g., landscape vs. portrait mode). Flow lines provide anability for creating ads that best position on a website. For instance,if several ads are sold to be above the fold on desktop, it allows boththe publisher and the advertiser to have those ads maintain thatinventory/sales strategy to be in a proper shape and form above the foldeven on mobile screens.

The following paragraphs describe different techniques and conceptsrelated to flow lines. A flow line is based on dynamically changing theshape of the advertisements, and the ability for the ads themselves tomorph or change sizes based on a configuration of the flow line that canmap to the target location or area. The flow line gives a way of settingwhat the shapes will be for a specific responsive web design site atdifferent break points that determine where the site changes shape basedon the different widths of the screen or object. These flow lines can bein configured on the actual site itself and then the ad that is servedfits into the flow-line embedded into the site. The other method is tohave the flow line itself incorporated into the ad and the ad tag. Thisenables the ad to fit to the designated site in the configurationoriginally set for the ad itself.

The content of flow line based advertisements can be based on context.The previous paragraphs described the ability for the ads themselves tomorph or change sizes based on a concept of flow lines. For a specificresponsive web design site there are break points that determine wherethe site changes shape based on the different widths of the screen orobject. However, the responsive advertising system can also look toconfigure the flow line on not only breakpoints or screen or objectshape, but on external input modifiers, such as temperature, time ofday, location of user, behavioral circumstances, and so forth. In otherwords, a storyline of the presentation of the ad from screen to screencan be set based on the context.

Flow lines can also be used to target advertising content to aparticular user or user information. Given the fact that the system canmodify the content in an ad itself and configure it based on a flowline, the system can now make it so that the actual content in the adcan be relevant for the user. This could mean specific information fromsocial circles or the way the user interacts with the ad itself. Much ofthis is also very sensitive based on privacy, but that is something thatis handled separately in the identification and targeting of a specificuser. What the flow line enables is the possibility to have directconversations with the user based on how that advertiser would like tohave a story for that particular user. One example is the flow line fora specific user based on the purchase process.

How data is aggregated about the user, or the segment of the user basedon activity and behavior, is a separate interface and technology thatwill be discussed later. The technology around the actual ad and how itcan be presented in a form dynamically on the fly without changing adserver tags or the overall campaign is the job of the flow line.

The following paragraphs describe the flexibility of flow line set upfor paid, earned, and owned media. The above example had this set-up fora specific ad example (Sales force) for an ad campaign. However, settingup flow lines is not limited to just this. For example, a user could usethe technology for house-ads on a site with the technology linked to theoverall customer relationship management (CRM) system of the user. Thedifferent configurations could be set-up across all of the differentcontent pages for a user linking to a customer. There are also differenttypes of media such as paid (e.g., use media dollars to acquire users),earned (e.g., gain users via blogs or social media), and owned (e.g.,marketing to users that are already customers).

The same process could be used for marketing messages on the user'swebsite, blog pages, emails linking the actual house ad related to everytouch point of that publisher. In the paid scenario, the user acts likean advertiser and the ad is very similar to the first four steps of thepurchase process described above. The earned scenario could be for auser using their own media and blogs and house ads to start theengagement process with that customer for these four steps as well.Owned media could be marketing messages that exist from the fourth toseventh steps.

By having a single ad that can do this no matter the device or the placethe ad-tag is placed to serve the ad, the responsive advertising systemprovides a very powerful solution to easily get a holistic view of theoverall marketing to the users and customers of a publisher or brand.

The following describes flow line mixes (stretch and swap adconfigurations, multiple flow lines, or composite configurations). Theresponsive advertising system is not just limited to stretch banner ads.A basic version of silo ads for each different screen or campaign hasbeen typically image ads, flash, or HTML5 files. Packaging these filestogether to deliver for a specific screen, context, or campaign is atraditional way of doing it. Having the stretch technology as afoundation can also provide the ability to use the same tag to deliverthese different creatives depending on the configuration of a flow line.Depending on the settings for the triple responsive, the flow lineconfiguration can call these total assets instead of calling individualpieces of the ad to be put together as the ad itself.

Authoring Tools

Another concept introduced by the responsive advertising system is anauthoring environment and tools for creating the previously describedpackage. The responsive advertising system provides a powerful platformthrough which advertisers can publish creative advertisements withvarious responsive components. The system is powerful enough thatadvertisements created through the system are applications untothemselves. These can be HTML5 elements, image elements, ADOBE™ FLASH™elements, or other types of applications incorporated in theadvertisement and may be embedded in websites or other locations whereadvertisements are published.

The responsive advertising system provides an authoring tool throughwhich advertisers can specify various layouts and content for a singleadvertising unit, as well as conditions and criteria under which theadvertisement content will change. For example, the advertiser mightspecify how a particular advertisement will look on a desktop computer,on a laptop, on a smartphone, on a tablet, on a smart watch, or otherscreen type as well as elements of the advertisement that may change torespond to changing events and conditions, such as the user'sviewability (sequencing), location, previous actions, time of day, storepromotions, or other criteria relevant to the advertiser. Thus, theresponsive advertising system provides an advertisement authoring andserving platform that allows for the creation of a new type of highlyresponsive advertisement that changes over time and across devices totell a cohesive story and does so in a unified advertising unit formatthat does not ask advertisers to manage numerous advertising campaigns.

When creating a stretch ad or stretch ad combo with swap with a flowline being configured, there are various ways for content and data to beintegrated with the actual ad itself. One example is a “Responsive AdCreator and Dashboard” that can be provided by the system. A ResponsiveAd Creator (Ad Configurator) component is one product and technologythat has been developed specifically for creating an ad with a flowline. Files can be uploaded from an existing desktop ad. Then, the ad istransformed into a cloud-hosted HTML5 ad. The flow line is built usingstandard flow lines mentioned above or a custom flow line. This processis described in detail through figures in the related applicationincorporated above.

CONCLUSION

From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that specific embodiments ofthe system have been described herein for purposes of illustration, butthat various modifications may be made without deviating from the spiritand scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not limitedexcept as by the appended claims.

I/we claim:
 1. A computer-implemented method to deliver a web page withan embedded advertising framework that can dynamically select and insertvariably-sized advertising units when the web page is rendered on aclient device, the method comprising: receiving a request to display aweb page; retrieving markup language describing a page layout of therequested web page from a web server, wherein the page layout includesone or more elements of non-advertising content, and a frameworkfootprint containing advertising content associated with the web page;detecting one or more characteristics of a client device that willdisplay the web page, wherein the characteristics include at least asize of an area in which the web page and one or more advertisementswill be rendered; loading the retrieved framework footprint andidentifying a plurality of possible advertising unit locations andlayouts to render within or above the requested web page; anddynamically turning on or off and modifying a size for each possibleadvertising unit within the retrieved framework footprint to renderwithin the requested web page based on the detected one or morecharacteristics of the client device and the available space within theweb page, wherein the preceding steps are performed by at least oneprocessor.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein retrieving markup languagedescribing the page layout comprises retrieving cascading stylesheets(CSS) that includes media queries that define breakpoints for resizingcontent of the web page, including advertising content.
 3. The method ofclaim 1 wherein the retrieved framework footprint is a package thatincludes multiple advertising units with sizing and layout informationfor dynamically positioning and sizing the multiple advertising unitswithin the web page.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein detecting one ormore characteristics of the client device comprises detecting one ormore proportionally sized regions into which web content will bedynamically sized.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein detecting one ormore characteristics of the client device includes at least one ofdetecting a type of the client device, a size of one or more screens ofthe client device, and a size of a browser application's window on theclient device.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein detecting one or morecharacteristics of the client device comprises re-detecting thecharacteristics after a user initiated change in size of the browserapplication window and dynamically resizing one or more visibleadvertising unit locations in response to the detected change in size.7. The method of claim 1 wherein loading the retrieved frameworkfootprint comprises parsing a package data structure that allowsmultiple content items associated with an advertising campaign to bemanaged and published as a unit that describes a plurality of elementsand one or more placements of the elements.
 8. The method of claim 1wherein loading the retrieved framework footprint comprises loading onlya portion of multiple available advertising units on the client, andleaving other available advertising units to be progressively downloadedfrom the server only if they are needed based on the detected clientcharacteristics.
 9. The method of claim 1 wherein loading the retrievedframework footprint comprises loading one or more of the multipleavailable advertising units associated with the framework at the clientand selecting at the client which advertising elements to turn on or offmaking them visible or hidden, respectively.
 10. The method of claim 1wherein dynamically turning on or off and modifying the size comprisesintegrating the advertising footprint framework dynamically within a webpage using responsive web design to dynamically vary the size ofnon-advertising page content.
 11. The method of claim 1 wherein eachelement in the footprint framework is stored with relative position andsizing information, the method receives an absolute size for eachelement at the time of display, and the method sets the size of eachelement to fit into the available absolute size.
 12. A computer systemfor providing a responsive advertisement footprint and framework, thesystem comprising: a processor and memory configured to execute softwareinstructions embodied within the following components; a designdashboard component that provides a control panel through which anadvertisement publisher can design an advertising footprint containingmultiple positions within a web page for an advertisement andadvertising units having adaptable sizes to fit to an available regionof a responsive web site; a page layout component that operates to layout and recognize elements on a web page for display to a user on aclient device; a size and shape detection component that detectscharacteristics of the client device that affect the environment,including size, in which the laid out web page will be rendered; amarkup reading component that reads the markup delivered by the pagelayout component and identifies both main content of the web page andone or more variable-sized locations of the web page that can containadvertising content; and a footprint selection component that reads afootprint framework created by the design dashboard and associated witha particular web page being prepared for display on a client device,selects from among the multiple layouts and positions of advertisementscontained within the framework footprint to select one or more layoutsand positions of advertisements to display on the particular web pagebeing prepared for display, and dynamically adapts the size of theselected advertisements to fit the detected client characteristics. 13.The system of claim 12 wherein the design dashboard component createsthe advertising footprint as a package of multiple advertisement itemsand information that are conditionally turned on and off and resized atdisplay time when the web page is rendered on a client device.
 14. Thesystem of claim 12 wherein the design dashboard component creates theadvertising footprint with media queries specifying variable layout andsizing information of one or more advertising units.
 15. The system ofclaim 12 wherein the page layout component renders a website built usingresponsive web design that fluidly fills the available display area ofthe client device with one or more web content elements, at least one ofwhich is an advertisement that also is built using responsive webdesign.
 16. The system of claim 12 wherein the size detection componentdetects at least one of a device type, a screen size, a browser windowwidth, and a container area where an advertisement will be placed. 17.The system of claim 12 wherein the size detection component operates ata web server and detects client display area characteristics usinginformation specified within a web-based request.
 18. The system ofclaim 12 wherein the size detection component uses cascading stylesheets(CSS) media queries to change position and placement of one or moreadvertising elements of the web page based on client characteristics.19. The system of claim 12 further comprising a tracking component thatprovides reporting and tracking of how advertisements are actually usedby one or more client devices.
 20. A computer-implemented method toauthor and publish an advertising framework, the method comprising:receiving a request from an advertising author to create anadvertisement unit having dynamic format and content for multiple clientdevices; receiving a format for a first version of the advertisementunit; receiving one or more elements and layout information for thereceived elements that will comprise the content of the first version ofthe advertisement unit; storing the first version of the advertisementunit as defined by the advertisement author; if the advertising authorrequests to define more versions of the advertisement unit for otherpotential client devices or screen formats, repeating the steps ofreceiving a format for the next version, receiving one or more elementsand layout information for the next version, and storing the nextversion; and publishing the advertisement framework including each ofthe defined advertisement units as a packaged entity designed todynamically respond to multiple client device screen sizes but bemanaged as a single entity by the author, wherein the preceding stepsare performed by at least one processor.